Sticky FAQs

What advice have you for a pilot who's told by ATC to call after landing?

James Cooling is Principal and founder of Cooling & Herbers, P.C., in Kansas City, Missouri. His answer to this question, asked by Business & Commercial Aviation:

"There is no legal requirement to return the call, but most pilots want to. We advise that you call your attorney first. If you don't have one, call us, and then together call the tower or FSDO. A professional pilot can't afford to have a black mark on his record. The FAA can be aggressive and a controller can elicit informaltion that can do an innocent buy unknowing pilot harm. So it's a good idea to have a third party who knows the regs on your side. And also file a NASA report within ten days of the flight. And if an inspector asks for your license during a ramp check, show it — those are the rules — but he can't keep it. We're not trying to get out of anything, but we don't want pilots to suffer from a misinterpretation of the regulations."